Hieronymus Besler e due sue lettere

During his third interrogation in the course of his trial in Venice (2 June 1592), Bruno mentioned "Hieronimo Bislero" as his "scolaro" (student), who had served as his scribe in Padua between September and October 1591. What Bruno failed to say, however, was that he had known the young doctor from Nuremberg for around six years. Hieronymus Besler (1566-1632) was probably the person who knew more than anyone else about some of the reasons that had led Bruno to decide to return to Italy. This decision had to be kept secret, at least at first. The two letters Besler wrote to his uncle (Wolfgang Zeileisen) in the autumn of 1590, which are here being published in full, are among the very few testimonies which have survived the (probably intentional) disappearance of documents related to the Nolan philosopher's last years of freedom.